By Sunny Lee
Korea Times Correspondent
BEIJING ― U.S. Secretary of Hillary Clinton was expected to discuss tensions with North Korea at great length with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi following talks with her South Korean counterpart in Seoul, where she sternly warned Pyongyang to cease provocative acts and refrain from a missile launch.
However, her stay in China, the final leg of her week-long tour to Asia, was highlighted with discussions on clean energy, climate change, the global economic difficulty and bilateral human rights concerns and military ties.
Both the U.S. and Chinese state media underscored her visit to a clean thermal power plant built with U.S. and Chinese technology, which Clinton hailed as ``an example of the kind of job-creating, bilateral, public-private collaboration that we need so much more of.''
Did she discuss North Korea? ``I think they discussed the issue. It's an important topic. But they don't want to talk about it publicly because at this moment they have very little influence over the North,'' said Professor Shi Yinhong of Renmin University in Beijing.
Clinton in Seoul Friday named Stephen Bosworth, an academic and former US ambassador to South Korea, to the new post of Special Representative for North Korea Policy. But she also labeled the North a ``tyranny'' and demanded it stop insulting the leaders in the South if it wanted diplomatic normalization with the new Obama-led U.S. administration.
Departing from the State Department's ``taboo,'' Clinton also mentioned a possible crisis in North Korea surrounding Kim Jong-il's heir designation, which she said may create uncertainty and possibly encourage provocative behavior inside the communist state.
Over the weekend, North Korea kept up its tough rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, accusing the former of preparing for war on the Korean peninsula.
``The situation is quite tense on the Korean peninsula, with North Korea showings signs of moving ahead with launching the missile,'' Shi said. ``At this particular time, China's influence on North Korea is also very limited.''
Clinton's message on North Korea during her Asian tour was tough, reflecting the Obama administration's increasingly formative stance that it wants a complete denuclearization of North Korea before offering any concessions.
U.S. president Barack Obama, during his presidential campaign, repeatedly said that he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim to resolve long-standing nuclear tension on the Korean peninsula ― seen as ``Obama doctrine'' and meant to show that diplomacy and dialogue work in resolving global conflicts.
``However, observers now believe that U.S. dealings with North Korea will be more conditional, depending on how Pyongyang behaves, reflecting the current U.S. administration's view of Pyongyang, namely, not negotiating with it until it changes its attitude,'' said Dong Yong-sueng, head of the Economic Security Team of the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul.
For that matter, Shi doesn't expect any breakthrough on the nuclear issue. ``If North Korea continues to be hostile towards South Korea and the U.S., the Obama administration is not likely to change its attitude. But there's also no indication that North Korea's likely to change its attitude,'' he said.